Penn Mile May be Steppingstone for A Thread of Blue

Just shy of perfect this season, Leonard Green's A Thread of Blue is seeking a return to the winner's circle in the $500,000 Penn Mile Stakes (G2T) June 1 at Penn National. If all goes well in Saturday's lucrative test, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said the Hard Spun  colt could stretch out for the new Turf Trinity this summer in New York.

The Turf Trinity consists of the 1 1/4-mile Belmont Derby Invitational (G1T) July 6, the 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Derby Aug. 4, and the 1 1/2-mile Jockey Club Derby Sept. 7. 

"It just looks like (the Penn Mile) will suit him well and we'll figure out what we have to do to go a little further next time," McLaughlin said. "But he's a very handy horse, he has tactical speed. We don't think distance will be a problem, but this is just a great opportunity and it'd be nice to win a grade 2 with him."

A Thread of blue won three consecutive turf races during Gulfstream Park's Championship Meet, including the one-mile Dania Beach Stakes Feb. 3 and 1 1/16-mile Palm Beach (G3T) Stakes March 2. He went to the lead in the May 4 American Turf (G2T), run at 1 1/16 miles over Churchill Downs' turf, and nearly wired the race before Chad Brown-trained Digital Age got up by three-quarters of a length.

Agent Mike Ryan found A Thread of Blue for Green at last year's Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, where Green purchased the colt for $430,000 with the intent of running him two turns. After an off-the-board debut on dirt in August, McLaughlin switched him to the turf and the colt has not been off the board in seven starts since. 

"He is just a beautiful horse. He was an expensive purchase by Mike Ryan, but we're happy to have him at the barn," McLaughlin said of the colt bred in Kentucky by Flaxman Holdings. "He's very well bred, does everything right, and he's a pleasure to train." 

Green credits McLaughlin's patience for A Thread of Blue's success. Most of the colt's races have been four weeks apart, with an extra month in between the Palm Beach and American Turf. Green also noted that McLaughlin has found an easy work pace that serves A Thread of Blue in the morning. The colt had his first breeze since the American Turf May 25 at Belmont Park, turning in a half-mile in :49.88 on the training track.

"When you have a good trainer," Green said, who hopes to make the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) at the end of the year, "you just have to sit back sometimes and let them call the shots."

Jockey Luis Saez, who has been aboard in A Thread of Blue's past four starts, retains the mount.

"We've lucked out that Saez has run and won with him before and he's given us the call again, which is great," Green said. "It's always nice to have somebody aboard who's actually been on the horse before, and won on the horse before."

Eight other sophomores will take on A Thread of Blue Saturday, including August Dawn Farm's Forty Under, another that could be seen in the Turf Trinity. Forty Under impressed as a juvenile by winning the Pilgrim Stakes (G3T) at Belmont in September. He wrapped up 2018 with a sixth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) and kicked off this season with a runner-up effort in the April 20 Woodhaven Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Team Valor International and Gary Barber's The Black Album, a group 3 winner in his native France, will make his third stateside start in the Penn Mile. He was third, beaten a length, in the April 5 Transylvania Stakes (G3T) at Keeneland and seventh in the American Turf.

Three Diamonds Farm's Nov. 4 Awad Stakes winner Empire of War and LRE Racing and JEH Racing Stable's Jan. 5 Kitten's Joy Stakes winner Casa Creed are among those hoping to make the grade. Casa Creed has finished behind A Thread of Blue in his past three starts.